Cheers: Rip Off Ireland has the highest tax on wine

People in Ireland now pay the highest wine tax in Europe, which has led to an approximate 8pc decline in the overall volume of wine sales in the country, the Irish Wine Association announced today.

The organization’s Annual Wine Market Review has called for a reversal of last year’s excise increase, which, according to them, has led to ‘significant cash flow issues’, and has ‘put thousands of jobs at risk.’

According to the report, distributors are now spending almost an extra €18,000 in taxes every 1,000 cases, while seeing overall wine sales slump by 8.2pc to an approximate 8.2 million cases last year.

On a €9 bottle of wine, consumers are paying €4.86 in taxes. This is up from €3.53. Ireland now has the highest wine tax in the whole European Union.

15 EU countries pay zero tax on wine.

The report also looked at the consumption habits among Irish wine drinkers, and found that the Irish now prefer white wine over red. White wine now holds 51pc of the overall volume share. This is a marked difference when looking back at 2003, where red wine was market leader, with a 52pc dominance.

In terms of popularity, consumers prefer Australian and Chilean wines, taking up 20.6 and 20.1pc of market share respectively.